As
Christians, we enjoy singing praises to God. Worship is our
response to who God is and what He has done for us. How could we
not be moved to wonder by contemplating God’s love, the cross, or
the creation? Joyously we declare in song, “I Stand Amazed,”
“There Is a God,” and “This Is My Father’s World.” Like the
Psalmist and Paul, we see the presence, majesty, power, and wisdom
of God in the creation.

At the same time, we find ourselves
troubled by the thought that Satan has attempted to usurp God’s
place in the world. While the physical creation proclaims God’s
glory, the population denies it. Jesus acknowledged the extent of
Satan’s power in the world when He referred to him as the “prince
of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11).
This is why the Bible presents a contrast and opposition between
the Kingdom of God and the world of men — the world being that
which is alienated from God by its nature and conduct — that which
does not know or obey God. Thus, the Bible refers to the rulers of
the world (Isaiah 40:23), the
people of the world (Luke 16:8; 1 Corinthians 5:10), the
principles of the world (Galatians
4:3), the wisdom of the world (1 Corinthians 3:19), and the
ways of the world (Ephesians 2:2).

The Bible does not minimize the
difference between the world and Christ. Jesus tells us we cannot
love both the world and God. First
John 2:15 plainly tells us not to love the world or anything
in it. “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not
in him.” The tension between the world and Christ and the church
is so great that Jesus warned, “the world hates you” (John 15:19). This is why the Bible
strongly portrays the relationship between Satan and Christians as
spiritual war. In the context of arming ourselves for this
conflict, Paul speaks of taking our stand “against the devil’s
schemes” (Ephesians 6:11).

The Bible and history reveal some of
those schemes. For example, Satan has incited the world to hate
and persecute Jesus and His followers. He has prompted Christians
to compromise with the world. He has influenced the world to
reject the values and morals of God. He has caused division in the
church. His attacks have been aggressive and open, as well as
subtle and hidden. His effectiveness and progress in today’s world
can be clearly seen. To identify this, we need only consider what
has happened with moral issues over the past fifty years.

In the
late 1960s, the “New Morality” gained influence. Biblical moral
standards of purity and chastity were displaced by sexual laxity
under the guise of love. Concepts of lifetime marital commitment
gave way to easy, no-fault divorce. Over the following years, the
legal system increasingly separated itself from the influence and
values of the Bible. Abortion became legal and accessible. Couples
openly live together outside of marriage. Same-sex relationships
have become accepted and even promoted. We might legitimately ask
what could possibly be next?

Over the past few years, the issue of
euthanasia has gained increasing attention. Often presented as
“physician assisted suicide,” the debate (and practice) of
euthanasia has taken dramatically different turns. For example,
the Groningen Protocol (“neonatal euthanasia”) in the Netherlands
(2004) permits doctors, under certain conditions, to take the life
of a child. Should this not be seen as a direct result of
increasingly lax attitudes toward abortion and even life itself?
According to the Protocol, a committee of doctors should be
involved in the decision to end a child’s life. However, how many
of us are personally aware of children who, at birth and even
later, were given pessimistic medical prognoses only later to
thrive?

More recently, another attack on
biblical values is occurring. According to lawyer John Ince, at
least two million Canadians, many young, live in “polyamorous”
relationships. Ince, representing the Canadian Polyamory Advocacy
Association, has applied to the British Columbia Supreme Court to
declare the anti-polygamy section of the Criminal Code of Canada
unconstitutional. However, polyamorists are not polygamists.
Polygamy is the practice of having multiple spouses — plural
marriage. According to Daphne Bramham of The Vancouver Sun, polyamory is “a post-modern,
secular, non-patriarchal, conjugal relationship that involves a
panoply of sexual groupings and gender variations.” They want the
court to see that “polyamory is a more highly evolved form of
family/conjugal relationship that is beneficial to all of its
participants — the way of the future. Mindelle Jacobs, Sun Media
columnist adds “the B.C. Civil Liberties Association also wants
our polygamy law struck down.” In case you have not realized what
polyamory entails, essentially it is the complete rejection of
biblical standards of marriage and morality. Trying to make it
palatable and acceptable, they call it polyamory which means many
(multiple) loves (sexual relationships). From a biblical
perspective, it is immorality. However, given Satan’s influence
and the direction Canadian society and the legal system have been
going, it seems almost inevitable that eventually, polygamy and
polyamory will become legal.

Ephesians 5 describes a world much like
ours today. The contrast between Christians and the world they
lived in was like light and darkness. Christians are not to be
deceived and be partners with darkness. We are to pursue
“goodness, righteousness and truth” and to “find out what pleases
the Lord.” We are to have “nothing to do with the fruitless works
of darkness, but rather expose them.”

The “prince of this world” has great
power in our world. He has gained the hearts, minds, and souls of
countless millions. As people of God’s light, we dare not minimize
the magnitude of the conflict with Satan nor the importance of our
role, as individuals. Though the world may descend further into
darkness, we must show His light, pure and untainted, in every way
possible.

Editor’s Note: Wayne Turner is co-editor of Gospel Herald in which this
article was originally published. It is used here by permission.